The Batsmen Did Not Back Up The Bowlers – Moore Laments Day 2 Test 3

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom – West Indies coach David Moore spoke with the media at the end of the second day of the third Test match against England at Old Trafford.

Match Status

England 370 (Bell 97, Cook 60) and 34 for 1 (Cook 12*, Vaughan 10*) lead West Indies 229 (Chanderpaul 50, Panesar 4-50) by 175 runs

Following are excerpts from his responses to various issues raised by journalists.

On the capitulation at the end of the West Indies innings:

Very disappointing. I thought that (Runako) Morton, (Shivnarine) Chanderpaul, (Devon) Smith and (Dwayne) Bravo worked pretty hard to get us in a good position. All the batters knew we were in a position where Bravo was batting at six as we made changes to get some more bowling in our side. They played some poor shots and led to a situation where we were in a very good position to being in a very poor position and bowling again on the same day. I wanted to give our bowlers a rest but we didn't bat well enough to do that.

On the reason for the collapse:

The collapse was the result of poor shots and a situation where you have a good bowler (Monty Panesar) bowling to the tailenders. The balls that Monty bowled to (Jerome) Taylor, having him reaching forward, and Darren Sammy were pretty good balls to guys who are not used to playing left hand orthodox spin. We bowled so well, the first time we've taken ten wickets in an innings in this Test series. Edwards came into the team with a bit more firepower, Sammy bowled well on his Test debut but our batsmen did not back up a good bowling effort.

On whether he wishes Fidel Edwards had played in the previous Tests:

I don't know if the wickets previously would have suited him. I think it was well timed for Fidel to get in because he was probably short on high quality cricket. He hadn't had a chance before, he had been playing club cricket (in Trinidad and Tobago). He needed a bit of time to get suited and get settled, he went out in the game against the MCC (in Durham) and he gave us some good indications and he gave us some good indications in the first innings (of this Test match).

On what score the Windies would be comfortable chasing:

I wouldn't like to make any prediction on that but obviously our plan is to get as many quick wickets as we can tomorrow morning and try and dictate. Making any predictions on exact figures would be a little presumptuous, we have a straightforward plan and that is to get into the English batters as soon as we can and not allow them to get settled in. We want to chase as little as possible in that last innings.

On the matter of the England bowlers practicing on the square prior to the start of the innings:

We just wanted some clarification on what was going on, some clarification on what the issue was and what the ramifications of those issues were. We had a discussion with the match referee (Alan Hurst) and he told us that effectively what happened was that the fourth umpire had asked them to move off and they did so immediately.